


and the band played on

by starpaint



Category: Discworld - Terry Pratchett
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-10 00:00:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11679813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starpaint/pseuds/starpaint
Summary: Sam Vimes is smarter than the Night Watch deserves.





	and the band played on

Vimes is a bright young man, and, by all rights, should not be in the City Watch. Not that there are _rights_ in Ankh-Morpork, really. City folk do what they want to do, and as long as they keep their noses out of sight, things turn out all right.

But young Vimes asks _questions_. He even tried to do what was _right_ , once or twice, until the officers set him straight. Ole Abe hasn't seen a Watch-lad like him in years. But a Watchman's no good for aught except bleating, hiding, and licking yellowed bruises when he can't get away fast enough. The lads all turn that way, in the end. 

Ole Abe - scarred from fighting drunk and tripping over rusty gutters; sullen corporal of twenty-nine years; silent, grim, and foreboding - no less than the rest of them. 

He spends a lot of time looking over the lads, as younger men can make their rounds quicker. Unimportant - who, exactly, would trust the Watch with aught of import? - but it rankers nonetheless. 

He hopes young Vimes finds a way out of this mess, before he's old and maudlin and caught between leaf and bottle. A knife in the back, maybe. No one with the brains enough to understand this should be forced to suffer it. 

The Watch has always been good at legging it. But these days, Abe can't understand why they bother running.


End file.
